Marble runs and playtime in Austin ...

First thing this morning ... everyone is ready to play!

Grandpa Jones and I slept in this morning, our first in Austin. But once we had breakfast, the fun began and just went on all day. Olivia left for school just before 8:00 and I neglected to get any pictures of her before she left. I'm going to have to do a lot better snapping pictures of her tomorrow. Jackson and Karis usually start their day up in the upstairs playroom, so that's where we went right after eating our breakfast.

Here is Karis all dressed up in her chef's hat,
ready to cook for the family!
Is she cute or what?
A few weeks ago, Grandpa and I were looking through the Sunday Press and there was an advertisement from Toys-R-Us showing a very neat marble run for only $19.99! We remembered how much the Rauch kiddos enjoyed playing with the old one we had downstairs in the basement while at our house this past Christmas ... so I sent grandpa out to the store to see if he could get us a nice one to bring down to Austin!
This marble run is twice as nice as the old one I have
and cost half as much as what I had paid for mine 20 years ago ...
what a bargain!
Thankfully, Sabrina is good at building ...
because it's a little bit tricky to put this thing together
(unless, of course, you are an engineer-type person)
Jackson was really anticipating putting the first marble down ...
Jackson and Karis played with this toy
several hours today! I'm not kidding!

There is just something about cause and effect
that really interests kids at this age ...
Sabrina changed the run around a few times
to keep it interesting ...
Grandpa and Jackson enjoying the comfortable
chair in the great room below the playroom ...

You will have to forgive me tonight.
Exhaustion has rendered me completely and totally

inarticulate and boring ...
We had a great day together and now that I am all caught up loading pictures, I will try to be more creative and journal our day better tomorrow ...

We're talking about going to the animal rescue center here in Austin in the morning.

Sabrina says they have some really cool animals there!